A motor vehicle having a dog clutch transmission in which a clutch and a transmission are actuated by actuators such as motors has already become practically available. Such a motor vehicle is primarily characterized by automatically performing a series of shift operations including disengaging of the clutch, shifting of gears, and re-engaging of the clutch, when a rider inputs a shift command.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-170229 (hereinafter “Japanese '229 application”) discloses a motor vehicle with a dog clutch transmission, wherein a clutch and a transmission are actuated by actuators such as motors. When a shift command is input while control in accordance with a running state program is being exercised in the motor vehicle disclosed in the Japanese '229 application, the following steps are executed: activating the clutch actuator so as to disengage the clutch once; activating the shift actuator so as to upshift the transmission; switching to upshift control, in which the clutch actuator is activated so as to re-engage the clutch; and then switching to control in accordance with a running state program when the upshift control is finished.
In the motor vehicle disclosed in the Japanese '229 application, after the upshift control is finished and before the control is switched to control performed in accordance with a running state program, a rider may input an additional shift command at that timing, feeling that the shift operation has already finished. When the shift command is not carried out in this case, the rider may feel uncomfortable and feel that the motorcycle is unresponsive.
The present invention has been achieved against such a background. An object of the present invention is to provide control that makes possible a shifting operation having a good response by accepting an additional shift command during a shift operation of a motorcycle having a clutch and a dog clutch transmission.